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Mexican president to visit Cuba, talk about offshore oil
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In a long-anticipated visit, Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced he would be in Cuba April 11, to talk about trade and investments, as well as offshore oil.
Calderón, who is in the last year of his six-year term, notified the Mexican senate that he would be traveling April 11-15, to visit Cuba and Haiti, and attend the Americas’ Summit in Cartagena, Colombia. The official visit to Cuba will serve to “deepen the dialogue on trade exchanges and investments between the two countries,” the president’s notice to the senate said.
“In the encounter, we will talk about political and migratory affairs, exploitation of joint oil resources, trade and investment, human rights, and Latin American and Caribbean regional integration,” the notice said.
Following his visit to Cuba, Calderón will make a stop at Port-au-Prince for a work visit, and then go on to the Summit in Colombia.
The notice didn’t provide any more detail about the offshore oil issues.
Following a 10-year moratorium signed in 2001, in which the United States and Mexico agreed on not tapping reserves shared by both countries, the two neighbors signed an agreement about joint exploitation of trans-border oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico has not signed one with Cuba.
According to observers, there have been talks between state oil companies Pemex and Cupet. Part of the talks apparently centered on trans-border oil reserves. Cuba sees the joint exploitation as a way of settling its estimated $500 million debt with Mexico.
Pemex is also eyeing oil exploitation in Cuban waters. In September, the Mexican state oil company spent $1.6 billion to raise its stake in Spanish oil company Repsol YPF — which is currently performing an exploratory offshore drill in Cuban waters — from 4.8 percent to 9.8 percent, with the idea of creating a strategic partnership. However, Pemex plans to coordinate with another major Repsol shareholder fell apart last fall.
Objectives behind the investment, according to a Pemex memo obtained by Mexican daily La Jornada, include piggybacking with Repsol in exploration in Cuban waters as well as in the United States, Brazil and Colombia.
Email This Post
In a long-anticipated visit, Mexican President Felipe Calderón announced he would be in Cuba April 11, to talk about trade and investments, as well as offshore oil.
Calderón, who is in the last year of his six-year term, notified the Mexican senate that he would be traveling April 11-15, to visit Cuba and Haiti, and attend the Americas’ Summit in Cartagena, Colombia. The official visit to Cuba will serve to “deepen the dialogue on trade exchanges and investments between the two countries,” the president’s notice to the senate said.
“In the encounter, we will talk about political and migratory affairs, exploitation of joint oil resources, trade and investment, human rights, and Latin American and Caribbean regional integration,” the notice said.
Following his visit to Cuba, Calderón will make a stop at Port-au-Prince for a work visit, and then go on to the Summit in Colombia.
The notice didn’t provide any more detail about the offshore oil issues.
Following a 10-year moratorium signed in 2001, in which the United States and Mexico agreed on not tapping reserves shared by both countries, the two neighbors signed an agreement about joint exploitation of trans-border oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico has not signed one with Cuba.
According to observers, there have been talks between state oil companies Pemex and Cupet. Part of the talks apparently centered on trans-border oil reserves. Cuba sees the joint exploitation as a way of settling its estimated $500 million debt with Mexico.
Pemex is also eyeing oil exploitation in Cuban waters. In September, the Mexican state oil company spent $1.6 billion to raise its stake in Spanish oil company Repsol YPF — which is currently performing an exploratory offshore drill in Cuban waters — from 4.8 percent to 9.8 percent, with the idea of creating a strategic partnership. However, Pemex plans to coordinate with another major Repsol shareholder fell apart last fall.
Objectives behind the investment, according to a Pemex memo obtained by Mexican daily La Jornada, include piggybacking with Repsol in exploration in Cuban waters as well as in the United States, Brazil and Colombia.
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